UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

September 5, 2007

A dream that did not come true

I went to a self-help group meeting in Vientiane to conduct an interview with one of its members. There, I interviewed Athit, a young 29 year-old man living with HIV. Athit was very willing to tell his story and wanted it to be a lesson learned for other young people. Athit told me that he was brought up in a village on the outskirts of Vientiane. He finished 8th grade and then dropped out of school. At sixteen, and with the encouragement of his friends, Athit decided to go to Thailand to find work. Like other young Lao people working outside their communities, the majority of youth lack good employment and education opportunities.

Athit sadly told me of his dream of finding a good job in Thailand and one day returning to Laos with some savings that would enable his family to have a better life. He spent more than six years working in Bangkok, Pattaya and other cities across Thailand. Initially he worked on a construction site but found the work very tough. This led him to take a job as a waiter in a bar - an easier way of making a living even though the pay was less.

Athit's new job introduced him to another side of society - the colourful night life of Thailand. Living alone far away from his family and from cultural taboos, Athit took up drinking and began visiting sex workers. With his new lifestyle, Athit had to find work with a better pay and this is how he ended up working in a Go-Go bar in Pattaya.

It was when Athit fell sick in Thailand that he decided to come back to Laos. He brought back none of the savings he'd promised his family. But that was not his only problem. Before long, he discovered that his illness was due to an HIV infection. Athit had heard of the virus before leaving for Thailand but was unaware of the consequences his high-risk lifestyle could entail.

Athit proudly told me that he is now a member of a UNICEF-supported HIV and AIDS outreach mobilization group. In his advocacy effort for HIV prevention, Athit tells young people that he has learnt a very hard lesson and does not want others to pay the same heavy price.

I think there are still many young people in Laos who are not well prepared to handle the social and economic pressure of a rapidly changing society. They lack the life skills which can help them make informed decisions before engaging in risky behaviour. At present, hundreds of thousands of young people from villages all over the country are migrating to big cities in Laos or to neighbouring Thailand in search of work with good pay. Typically, a majority of students leave during secondary school. One way to reach these young people is before they leave school as they are much harder to reach afterwards. I hope enough funds will be raised to take the life skills education component to scale so that other young people will not share the same fate as Athit.